Events & Conferences

It is vacation season, and for employees, this often means the chance to recharge with a break away from work or the exciting prospect of travel. However, for office and business continuity managers, protecting employees who are out of office poses a unique safety challenge. There is no single law requiring employers to keep track of employees who are out of office, but safety officials should have a protocol in place to communicate with employees, even when they are not on campus.

There are many reasons an employee might be out of office. It’s possible that employees can be away for business related travel, which makes communication with the rest of the company especially crucial. It’s also possible that an employee may need to be away from the office for a medical leave, or a family-related emergency. There’s also the potential for certain extreme weather situations to keep employees from the office. Last year, the devastating hurricane season kept many from going to work, while in New England, snowstorms regularly make travel to an office not an option. During all of these these scenarios, communication is critical.

Employers have options when it comes to protecting their workers, even when they are far from the office or facility in question. Technology has opened up new avenues for contacting employees, whether it is to check in on their safety or keep the entire team updated of office events. By leveraging innovative communication solutions, workplace safety can be improved, even for those who are out of office.

Employee Wellness Checks 

It’s important for employers to have a comprehensive safety plan that accounts for a variety of emergency situations. In cases of severe weather, employees may be unable to get to work. A proper communication system will allow the company to communicate with employees, even when they are not on campus.  For example, GE appliances managed to perform employee wellness checks during last year’s devastating hurricane season. According to Keith Carpenter, Senior Security Director at GE Appliances, the company was able to use their mass notification system as a way to communicate with employees, even when they’re not in the same locations.

When gathering employee information during the weather emergency,  the security team for GE realized that there wasn’t an easy way to track the employees who hadn’t responded to the check-in. A geo-polling feature helps solve this issue, a tool that provides real-time location data. This unique poll-based alerting system integrates with a mass-notification system that allows you to solicit information and location data from a select group of recipients through text, voice, and e-mail.  

No company should have to face such an emergency, but it’s best to be prepared. It’s important for employees to be looped in with mass notifications, even while out-of-office. In April, an active shooter entered the YouTube headquarters through a garage on the open campus and injured three employees. This is a scenario where a mass notification system is important, and would allow the office to communicate the location and nature of the emergency to all employees, even if they are away from the premises. By keeping the employees who are not in the office informed will prevent them from returning to the campus, improving overall safety for the office community.

Keep An Employee Database

It will be easier to manage the safety of off-campus employees if the company keeps an up to date database of contact information. A safety profile would allow employees to volunteer not only their personal contact information, but also any relevant medical information that would be helpful during an emergency situation. It would also employers to find alternative means to contact out of office employees. If the human resources department or other security personnel were having difficulties locating or contacting an employee who is away from office, they could use this emergency contact information if they had genuine safety concerns.

Consider All Communication Options

The ideal situation would allow for employees to be contacted at all times, no matter their location. However, extenuating circumstances can often prevent employees from being within range of their phones. During the 2017 hurricane season, GE relied on close-knit office communities to contact employees in Puerto Rico. The island was largely without power, but by reaching out to managers in the United States territory, the company was able to identify the status of their team members. This allowed the company to account for several employees, despite them being out of the range of contact.

This safety strategy can also be helpful for contacting employees who are away on business travel. Many companies operate out of multiple locations, and it’s important to manage communications between locations, no matter how far apart the two might be. If an emergency situation occurs and there are concerns about the employees’ status, the company could contact any affiliated offices abroad that might have contact with the worker. Even better, the company could connect their critical communications system, so updates were received by the company as a whole. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Government Technology reports that the Sonoma County (CA) Board of Supervisors signed off on an internal audit of the county's response to the deadly October wildfires in order to better prepare them to respond to future disasters. Key Highlights:

• The board agreed to move forward with a restructuring of the emergency services division that begins with funding new jobs for people who will focus specifically on the development of a new community warning program
• The board acknowledged that the public's expectations for emergency alerts have grown significantly with technological advancements in recent years
• Sonoma County can serve a leadership role by developing a warning program that more closely matches public expectations for what information the government will provide in times of crisis

We reported on this story a few months ago when the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services published a report from an independent assessment of Sonoma County's disaster communication plan failure. You can read our breakdown of that report here.  

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

What do 15 of the Top 20 Safest College Campuses Have in Common?

ADT recently released their report of the 2018 safest college campuses in the country. The study narrowed down 6,284 colleges and universities to determine ADT’s safest campus in each state and overall top 25 safest campuses list. What do 15 of the top 20 safest college campuses have in common? Read our blog to find out!

                                                                     READ MORE 

Elementary School Safety Tips 

Last August, the National School Boards Association published an interview with Ken Trump - President of National School Safety and Security Services. When asked what elementary schools could do to increase the safety of children in their care, Trump initially focused on staff training to eliminate errors, but then progressed onto three main topics - school resource officers, school access controls and technology. We take a deep dive into this interview and what it means for school administrators. 

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Rave in the News

Will you be attending NENA 2018? Make sure to stop by booth #717 and talk with our team! 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Campus Safety shares how schools can improve campus security by implementing several easy-to-adopt school safety ideas. The Boward County League of Cities' School and Community Public Safety Task Force published over 100 school security recommendations, including several overarching principals that are particularly relevant to school officials across the country. 

Key Highlights:

• Regardless of your security solutions or policies, in the end, people must adhere to and be vigilant in enforcing policies and procedures 
• There are usually many different opportunities for prevention and intervention in school safety emergencies and thus the challenge is ensuring that layers of protection are woven in such a way that the failure of one point may be caught at another

There's no single approach to school safety that works every campus, but some of these ideas are so easily achievable that officials should at least consider them for their facilities. Campus Safety shares 12 security ideas you can implement immediately. 

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog. 

Survey: Colleges Struggle to Engage and Keep Gen Z Students and Others Safe

A recent survey to colleges and universities across the country revealed a communication disconnect between higher education administrators and both Generation Z students and campus visitors. Results also showed schools were failing to reach the full ROI from their notification systems because of persistent underutilization. We take a deep dive into these results, as well as examine the role of gun violence and mental health on campus, in this survey breakdown blog.  

                                                                     READ MORE 

How the YouTube Shooting is Changing Open Office Safety Procedures

Switching to an open campus can offer employees a sense of freedom while at work. However, the open work space presents unique challenges that businesses should consider when crafting a safety plan. This blog breaks down common security challenges and provides strategies for improving open campus security while maintaining business operations and keeping employees happy. 

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Rave in the News

ADT recently published their list of the 25 safest college campuses across the country. ADT looked at data from the U.S. Department of Education's Campus Safety and Security Survey and the FBI Uniform Crime Report, as well as a multitude of factors, to determine their list for 2018. 

We are thrilled to say that 15 of the top 25 safest campuses in the country trust Rave technology to keep their communities safe. From anonymous texting with public safety officials to mass notifications during severe weather incidents, these schools are helping bring higher education safety into the 21st century. 

Read the full story to see which schools rounded out this year's top 25.  

On Tuesday, April 3^rd, an armed assailant entered YouTube headquarters and opened fire on employees. The attacker, a woman named Nasim Najafi Aghdam, shot and wounded three employees before shooting herself. Aghdam did not have a link to the three people she shot, and the random attack raised important questions about workplace safety and security. There are many ways corporate campuses can bolster their employee safety plan, but the shooting at YouTube presented created new concerns about vulnerabilities of the the open campus style favored by Silicon Valley tech companies.

The open office concept was created in Germany in 1950 by a team named Quickborner, who called this layout “the office landscape”. This type of office design was popularized with mobile technology, and has only been adopted in the United States during the last decade. In an open campus, offices are integrated into the surrounding suburban area, so residents and employees regularly mingle on the campus green or shopping in nearby retail. The open plan interior is thought to be more conducive to collaboration, since employees aren’t separated by cubicles. The space is instead characterized by workstations with no partitions and convertible collaboration spaces instead of conference rooms. Often, employees aren’t assigned to one space, and all work space is reserved on a first-come first serve basis, also known as “hotdesking”.

For employers, there are benefits to switching to an open campus, such as offering employees a sense of freedom while at work and coexisting peacefully with the surrounding residents. For the interior, the open space is thought to promote collaboration and decrease procrastination, both of which improve productivity. However, the open work space presents unique security challenges that business should consider when crafting a safety plan.

Open Campus Safety Challenges

The problem with protecting employees on an open campus is that the space was created with relaxation and comfort in mind. Unfortunately, this often means full accessibility, which present issues when it comes to managing security. Most businesses with an open campus do have security protocol that restricts access to the campus buildings, such as tap-in ID cards, but this doesn't account for the open outdoor or community spaces. In an interview with ABC News, former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator for the Department of Homeland Security John Cohen described how the open campus, while good for productivity, finds itself at odds with building security.  

"Most companies have embraced security protocols that restrict access to these open campuses,” Cohen said. "Once you're in the campus, they're designed to be free and open spaces because that's conducive to the type of environment they want to have in place to foster creativity and productivity. The problem is, from a security perspective, the more open, the more that an individual can move around and come into contact with other people, the easier it is for an attacker to operate in that environment.”

"The problem is, from a security perspective, the more open...the easier it is for an attacker to operate in that environment.”

For this reason, the sprawling campus buildings pose difficulties. In Silicon Valley, huge companies such as Facebook, Google, and Alphabet Inc’s recent expansion efforts have tried to make their campuses more inviting, so employees are open to mingle with neighbors in retail spaces and parks. According to the Wall Street Journal, this expansion strategy serves two purposes – it allows young tech employees access to stores and restaurants they enjoy, and it serves as a peace offering to the existing residents whose approval is needed to continue expansion. However, security remains a challenge, since the clusters of buildings cannot be fenced off in an effort to increase security.

The interior of these office buildings also present difficulties. Employees aren’t working in individual offices that can lock, and are instead working in huge shared rooms. There’s controlled access to the work space, but if an assailant bypasses that access point it leaves many employees vulnerable to attack. During the YouTube attack, Aghdam entered the building through the parking garage, which had two pedestrian doors. There was security on site, but the shooter managed to enter through a low-security point of the building. This reveals vulnerability for the office park, and forced the company to reevaluate response to critical incidents.

In a statement issued by Google, YouTube’s parent company, employees were assured that all precautions were being taken to improve safety. The statement read: “We are also revisiting this incident in detail and will be increasing the security we have at all our offices worldwide to make them more secure not only in the near-term, but long term.” It's not yet clear how the company will revise their business safety procedures, but there are unique challenges for the tech-world when it comes to improving workplace security. 

Balancing Security And Business Operations

The YouTube campus in San Bruno was designed to prioritize openness. It is made up of small buildings in close proximity, spread out across a suburban area. There are outdoor green spaces, and employees and locals are free to wander the area freely, and security guards are usually positioned at desks inside the building. Unfortunately, this creates many areas that aren’t secure for people working for the company, since employees are required to badge into the buildings, but the open space is accessible to all. The challenge is preserving this freedom to explore and use the campus space without fear, while also managing safety. Businesses don't want to overwhelm or instill fear in their community with highly visible security presence but they also need to make sure workers are protected.

The biggest challenge for managing workplace safety in Silicon Valley is balancing business needs with an appropriate security plan, two things that often run antithetical to each other in the tech world. In Fortune, former chief security officer at Uber Technologies Inc. and Facebook Joe Sullivan talked about how Silicon Valley’s environment poses an unprecedented security challenge. “Companies invest in security but purposefully keep physical security measures discreet because the vibe is casual and relaxed,” Sullivan told the magazine. “Leaders want to stay connected with their teams, generally choosing less visible security than you would see in traditional finance or media companies.”

Tourism also poses an issue for tech companies. Visitors are welcome to public areas, and regularly stop by the Facebook offices to take a picture with the giant thumbs-up sign or Android statues in front of Google. Companies have an obligation to protect employees from outside threats, but also to ensure that their grounds are a safe space for all visitors. Tourism is just one reason that businesses are beginning to take a more proactive approach to safety. "We're beginning to see those same business leaders come to understand that creating a safe environment for the workers and for visitors not only can enhance your brand but can make people more comfortable and more productive," Cohen told ABC News.

Strategies For Improving Open Campus Security

In recent months, gun violence has been at the forefront of the national conversation. Before the YouTube shooting, Silicon Valley was not part of this discussion, which often centers on public spaces like outdoor concerts, schools, or houses of worship. The perpetrator who entered the open campus and opened fire raised new concerns for tech companies, forcing them to rethink security practices. While not every one of the tech giants has this set up - Apple’s new headquarters Apple Park in Cupertino, California, for example, is circular campus that is closed off to the public. However, there are enough of these spaces to raise big worries for tech giants who want to maintain the freedom and open feel that a clustered campus offers, while also managing any threats to employees or the public at large. 

Luckily, there are several ways to improve safety and security for a company with an open campus, without dramatically changing the company culture. It’s important for the tech world to take a proactive approach to security for business continuity. The reality is that an active shooter attack or other major emergency on company grounds could damage the ability to bring in new employees and conduct business in the long term. The first step for businesses is to address security checkpoints. These should ensure that access to the buildings is controlled, and then interior building areas, especially those with open work formats, also have a security guard and require badge access.

The most difficult task for employee and visitor safety is hardening the public spaces. It’s important that workers don’t feel fearful, which means security personnel need to keep a low profile on campus. An anonymous 2-way tip helpline can be helpful, giving employee a discrete way to take safety into their own hands and report any suspicious activity in the area. Technology for emergency response is arguably less invasive then increasing presence of security personnel, though company's may want to reevaluate security checkpoint placement throughout their open campus as well. 

SMS Opt-In is a good option for tech companies with open areas. If tourists are going to be in the area for the afternoon, or an outside group is visiting the campus, they can opt-in for alerts for the duration of their visit. This will also help for brand reputation, as visitors will be able to see the company’s commitment to creating a safe environment.

Communication is important for managing workplace safety on an open campus. Effective communication can protect all employees, and is especially necessary when workers are spread out across many buildings and on the grounds. An emergency notification system can improve employee communication and awareness, and works in a variety of emergency situations including severe weather, active shooter threats, or medical emergencies. It also can help employers to conduct wellness checks, which are valuable for managing employee safety during an emergency. Many of these systems also have geo-poll or location capability, which can help identify an employee in need of help and send first response to the appropriate location. 

Education can be a tool as well, and if possible, employees should go through active shooter training or online classes. There is a delicate balance between preparedness and fearfulness, but it's necessary for workers to understand protocol should an emergency situation arise. There are simple procedures and drills that every company should have in place in case of an emergency, which will also cut down on disorganization or chaos and save time during emergency response. 

While it may not be at the forefront of every business plan, in the current environment, companies should take a proactive approach to employee safety. It’s important to factor security into business plans and office design, and it is possible to maintain the integrity of an open campus while prioritizing employee safety. It just takes education, innovation and leveraging technological tools, but this is what Silicon Valley is known for, after all. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Campus Safety shared findings from a new poll which revealed that 90% of hospitals are not prepared for major disasters or mass tragedies and have experienced shortages in critical medicines. 

Key Highlights:

• "Hospitals and emergency medical services continue to suffer significant gaps in disaster preparedness, as well as national drug shortages for essential emergency medications," ACEP President Dr. Paul Kivela said in a news release. "These shortages can last for months, or longer, and constitute a significant risk to patients." 
• The ACEP also called on federal lawmakers to take necessary steps to improve hospital preparations for mass casualty events, including improved coordination among public health and safety services.

Kivela says the survey's findings point to the need for a stronger focus on the medical aspects of preparedness in the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2017 (PAHPAI), which is being drafted in Washington, D.C.  

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

What You Need to Know About Emerging Vendor Security Standards

Our writers recently sat down with Scott McGrath, Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave, to discuss trends in information security, emerging industry standards for evaluating vendor security, and where the tech industry is headed next. Check out his interview to see why you should be pushing the tech community to come together and create industry standards to help streamline the process of vetting third-party data vendors. 

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Rave Panic Button and Non-Active Shooter Emergencies

Over the past year, Rave Panic Button has been activated over 5,000 times across the country. The reality is that most incidents are far more mundane than the active assailant incidents we hear about in the news. Rave Mobile Safety's CEO Todd Piett shares his thoughts on the gray area between non-active shooter emergencies and non-emergencies and how technology is playing a role in school safety. 

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Rave in the News

Rave Mobile Safety's CEO Todd Piett is featured this week in Safety + Health Magazine where he answers the questions, "What are the biggest technological innovations that have affected workplace safety?" 

Todd says technological innovations are essential in creating a significant impact in securing facilities and reducing the severity of emergencies and even shortening response times for first responders. According to Todd, it all comes down to an organization's ability to communicate. 

To read the full story, click here. 

I recently sat down with Scott McGrath, Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave Mobile Safety, to discuss recent trends in information security, emerging industry standards for evaluating vendor security, and where the tech industry is headed next. Here’s what Scott had to say:

 Jackson: Let’s just jump right in - there are currently no minimum standards for data security and privacy in the United States is that correct?

Scott: For the majority of organizations, yes you’re correct. After the Equifax and other high profile data breach issues, every organization has had to re-evaluate their information security practices. It’s obviously necessary, but only recently has a few prospective standards bodies governing the right mix of industry standards started to emerge.

J: That sounds bad.

S: Well yes and no. In our case, “cloud security” standards are what our customers (and prospective customers) need to evaluate. There are definitely emerging standards, let’s put it that way, but these processes need to be streamlined and scaled – “one off” questionnaires, often consisting of hundreds of questions, take up enormous resources – and need to be addressed by very technical resources.

Just in the past month or two we are starting to see more and more traction on standardized documents used for vetting third-party vendors. The Cloud Security Alliance for example has a cloud vendor assessment, the CAIQ, which is becoming increasingly common. Then there is a new one that we have just started seeing for the first time called HECVAT – which stands for Higher Education Cloud Vendor Assessment Tool.  I have high hopes for this survey, as it built to streamline the process for both vendors and our higher education customers (the edscoop website has a helpful articles on this topic.)  I have talked to some customers who are just learning about it – but I have high hopes this is widely adopted.

Google has its own standard (VSAQ) for its own assessments, using the idea of an Open Source document process. And possibly the standard with the widest reach are the SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) and SIG Lite standards. SIG is a membership organization, and that may be a barrier to entry for some organizations.

Another issue is that we still see company’s customizing these documents just enough to make them inherently nonstandard across the whole industry.

J: And what's the cost of this?

S: Time and effort on both sides. The process feels bureaucratic, however well prepared our platforms are to protect data and user privacy. The lack of industry standards has definitely created winners and losers.

J: Can you explain? Are you saying organizations requesting this information are the winners?

S: Not exactly - organizations don’t realize this process actually places a huge unnecessary burden on both vendors and customer infosec specialists as well. It would be much easier for them to be able to shop for vendors and know right away a particular company has met industry standards on data security because that company has already gone through a standardized vetting process. Think of it as having a certificate that says “Congratulations, you passed!” hanging on your wall and organizations looking to purchase your platform can save time vetting you because they can see you’ve already passed a standardized clearance process. That assurance might be provided by a standard like the HEVCAT process, or by a more formal certification.

It’s our responsibility as the vendor to provide this information, and, in fact, we actively want to highlight our enhanced security capabilities because we take operational information security and privacy protection very seriously. So for us, this is a chance to show organizations our high level of commitment to security and privacy. Vendors aren’t hoping the vetting process goes away because it’s great to see organizations as concerned with data security as we’ve been for decades - we just want the process to be more efficient.

J: What do you think is motivating organizations to be more stringent on vetting third-party vendors? Are they afraid a vendor will take their data and sell it off or that a vendor will experience a data breach because of security insufficiency?

S: I think it’s a little bit of both. The motivation is partly because an organization doesn’t want to be caught off guard if something happens. An organization wants to be able to say that they had fully vetted a vendor who claimed they could enforce certain levels of security standards. So this idea of proper due diligence is definitely playing a role.

What’s really interesting though is security information in a general sense is not something a company  just has or doesn’t have - it’s something a company has spent an exhaustive amount of time and resources to build a complex process around. And this isn’t something vendors just started working on last year. Companies build their entire database and platform around concerns of data protection and so this isn’t new for those of us who work in this industry. What is new, however, is how we go about communicating our enhanced information security capabilities to those who ask.  

J: Looking towards the future, how are emerging standards going to affect data vendors? Does this create a burden on them, especially smaller ones, who have to be able to comply with emerging industry regulations?

S: It will definitely encourage vendors to be more rigorous of their own information security approach. For example, here at Rave we just initiated a formal Security Council that’s cross functional across many different departments in the organization. Its purpose is to make sure that information security issues don’t fall through the cracks if they surface within a specific sub-discipline of our overall operations. This will ultimately make our product better and our platform better. And I think this can be applied to vendors everywhere. Most vendors who work with data have extensive privacy and security measures in place to protect client and user information. There’s also all the activity to support the May 25, 2018 GDPR compliance directives in Europe. Our industry already has standards; we just need to have a better process to be able to show others that those standards exist.

J: We’re coming to an end on our time. Is there anything else you want to add?

S: Just that it’s time for the tech community to come together to create industry standards so the process of vetting third-party data vendors can be more streamlined – to be collaborative with our customers and prospects to streamline documentation needs.  Not only will this process provide significant relief to vendors in the current system – I’ve heard from many of my peers that the burden of response has increased an order of magnitude over the last few years, and I realize that my perspective is vendor-centric of course, and [laughing] might sound a little whiney even. But a standard annual platform assessment will also greatly benefit the organizations that are out shopping for new vendor platforms and vetting their current portfolio of products and vendors. It’ll save everyone more time, it’ll ensure the right questions are asked and answered, and it will provide the assurance to each organization that their data remains secure and private.

Scott McGrath is Public Safety Solutions Architect at Rave Mobile Safety. Scott has been with Rave for over 10 years, and has worked with hundreds of customers with a focus on best practices and technical solutions.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Wired investigates the unlikely, and potentially problematic,  partnership between Amazon's new facial recognition technology and law enforcement agencies. What laws or regulations govern police use of the facial recognition technology and who is likely to be impacted most? 

Key Highlights:

• Numerous nonprofits wrote to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to ask the he stop selling the technology to police over fears the system will violate rights and target communities of color. 
• State and federal laws generally leave police departments free to do things like search video or images collected from public cameras. Cities and local departments can set their own policies and guidelines, but even some early adopters of the technology haven't done so.
• Orlando's chief of police, John Mina, said that the system could improve public safety and "offer operational efficiency opportunities." However, the system hasn't yet been used in investigations, or on imagery of members of the public. 

"This is a perfect example of technology outpacing the law," says Jennifer Lynch, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "There are no rules." 

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

7 Internal Communication Messages to Send via Mass Notification

HR and marketing communications experts agree that one of their biggest frustrations is getting internal communication messages read, especially if they require a timely response. Tapping into the communication capabilities of your internal communication system can allow employers to leverage employee engagement data and avoid alert fatigue. To help you get started with this, here are 7 internal communication messages to send to your employees via mass notification.

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How Seminole County, FL Protects 66,000 Students with Rave Panic Button and Mutualink

Last October we hosted a webinar featuring Captain Richard Francis, the School Safety and Security Director at the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. In this webinar breakdown blog, we highlight Captain Francis' thoughts on how Rave Panic Button has simplified the notification process for key stakeholders during an emergency and best practices for implementing the platform in your school system. 

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Rave in the News

In April, an Ottawa County man shot two people in another county, killing one, before returning to his home where he held his wife hostage and threatened to kill her next. The situation posed a threat to not only the wife and those nearby, but also to the officers responding to the call.

Luckily, the man's wife was detailing key information from inside the home to local dispatchers, including information on her husband and the weapons he had. The wife spent 45 minutes texting Ottawa County dispatchers without her husband being aware of the exchange, giving law enforcement a huge tactical advantage when they arrived at the scene.

Ottawa County Central Dispatch Executive Director Tim Smith said he thinks the ability to communicate with the woman saved the lives of two officers. 

To read the full story, click here. 

Ask any HR or marketing communications expert about one of their biggest frustrations and at the top of their list will most likely be getting internal communication messages read, especially if they require a timely response. Employees are too busy to read emails and get too many of them, might not be in the office to read the newest company poster in the kitchen, and will likely ignore important company-wide notifications that don’t have a specific action for them to take.

As a result, many companies are now turning to “digital enterprise media channels” to ensure that all employees receive and respond as needed to critical messages. This focus on digital is part of a bigger transformation. According to the CMSWire, many businesses are moving toward digital maturity by taking several actions including “…developing omnichannel strategies to create seamless experiences across all platforms.”

This is where a mass notification system can be used for more than just emergencies. A mass notification system sends multi-modal messages via text, email, voice, IPAWS-OPEN, WebEOC, digital signage and more, within a few clicks. It also has the ability to collect and validate data from other systems, providing human resources with information they might not have already such as an updated employee mobile number.

Here are 7 Internal Communication Messages to Send Through Your Mass Notification System

1. Annual Compliance Trainings: Employees might start to tune out routine compliance or ethics training messages, but by targeting multiple communication channels, they’ll most likely see the message and get their recertification done.
2. Company Meeting Announcement: If you have an upcoming company meeting, sending out the details through an email and as a post on an internal company portal would help in getting employees to notice the announcement.
3. Leadership Changes: Announcing promotions or departures of key company leaders through as many channels as possible helps to avoid confusion amongst employees, after the news becomes public.
4. Office Moves or Closures: Employees on the way to their office might not see an email about their office being temporarily closed because of a water pipe break, but they would be able to listen to a voice message with the announcement.
5. HR Enrollment Periods: Sending out messages about deadline-driven initiatives such as annual enrollment periods can be done easily and polls can be used to target employees that haven’t yet re-enrolled.
6. Employee Surveys: Asking an employee for 5-7 minutes of their time for company feedback might not be the first priority on their list, but by using multi-modal notifications, you can send follow-up emails to those who haven’t participated.
7. Holiday Reminders: If you have international offices or offices that celebrate certain holidays, you can easily target messages to wish your employees a nice holiday or to remind others of office closures.

Tap into Employee Engagement Data

In addition to sending out important internal communication messages, you can leverage engagement data to not only view real-time updates of message delivery success, but also understand which types of messages resonate with your employees. With detailed “by recipient” reports, administrators can view message content, any responses, success/ failure by delivery method and recipient contact, as well as method-specific information, such as busy calls or answering machines. The reporting dashboard shows overall system use to help strategically improve message effectiveness across your organization and track engagement around corporate initiatives.

Avoid Alert Fatigue

A common concern with using a mass notification system for both emergencies and non-emergencies is causing what's called alert fatigue, which is defined as "how busy workers...become desensitized to safety alerts, and as a result ignore or fail to respond appropriately to such warnings." Mass notification administrators have found a few solutions to prevent alert fatigue including:

1. Using pre-set templates to distinguish certain types of messages: One simple way to prevent alert fatigue is by using specific senders for certain messages, so that an employee can easily distinguish emergency and non-emergency messages. Setting up generic templates such as "Building Closure" also helps not only expedite the messaging process, but also provide consistency in the look and feel of the message.
2. Limiting the number of messaging modes by authorized users: Others have found limiting the number of messaging modes by authorized users has also helped. For example, giving health and safety managers the authority to send through all communication modes in the event of an emergency and only letting HR managers to send through voice message and email.

Leveraging your mass notification system for non-emergency internal communication messages is possible and can help you understand how employees best engage and respond to company-wide messages. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, EdScoop discusses how the University of San Francisco has implemented facial recognition technology in dorms to give students an extra layer of protection and top crime on campus before it happens. For the university's security officials, it's a constant challenge to sort out who belongs and who represents a potential threat to safety, especially in student dorms. 

"Our No. 1 crime prevention tip is to tell students to walk as a group. When the students get to this dorm... the first one swipes at the card reader and the all the rest file in behind them, " said Jason Rossi, the university's director of campus security systems. "Immediately, by having the students follow our No. 1 safety tip, we've lost our occupancy assurance."

Key Highlights:

• Students still swipe ID cards as they enter a dorm, but the facial recognition software scans the faces of every person who walks into the building in real time against USF's student ID photos hosted in the cloud. If the system detects a face it doesn't recognize, the dorm attendant receives a notification to assess the situation. 
• The USF system only stores a student's biometric data for the duration of the time that they live in a campus residence hall and campus security officials say the footage from the cameras is not actively being watched.
• The system also allows for instant alerts and video recordings at the scene of a card-swipe if someone uses an ID that has been reported lost or stolen. 

So far, the privacy concerns about such a system have been muted, officials at the university of said.

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

How to Quickly Communicate Product Recalls to Distributors

The recent E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is another reminder of how suppliers can best communicate product recalls with distributors. While not all product recalls are the same, the urgency of removing unsafe or under-quality products from store shelves is a common theme and is not always easy. When considering a communication tool for critical events such as product recalls, there are at least five features that should be included - we break them down and offer insight into building an all-inclusive business communication strategy. 

  READ MORE

Abandon Paper Registries, Not Vulnerable Populations

The objectives of a Vulnerable Needs Registry are to make sure the right resources are in the right place to help the right people at the right time. Yet many registries are still maintained on paper - making them difficult to keep up-to-date and potentially delaying the provision of help to those who need it most. We offer 7 best practices to help you save time and money when moving your vulnerable needs registry online.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

7-year-old Joshua King of Hancock County, Indiana is being praised for his brave and heroic work for calling 911 when his grandmother, Kristeen Walker, passed out in her garage earlier this month. Hancock County 911 Telecommunicator Greg Duda who answered the emergency call said he was unable to get an address from Joshua, but was quickly able to pull up information about who lived in Walker's house and where it was located from her Smart911 Safety Profile. 

"I saw the information and I asked I was speaking to Josh," Duda said. "He replied, 'no, I go by Joshua,' and I knew we had the right information." Officers were immediately dispatched to the scene where they found Walker unconscious but breathing. 

After the incident, Walker said she has had discussions with Joshua in the past about calling 911 if something ever happened to her. She creates both him and Smart911 for the quick response and for possibly saving her life. 

To read the full story, click here. 

The recent E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is another reminder of how suppliers can best communicate product recalls with distributors. According to the FDA, about 126 food recalls occur on average each year. The FDA also states that recall notifications should be marked as urgent, include detailed instructions including the extension of the recall (whether it affects consumers or wholesellers), and should include a return response card/form. The return response is also required in most cases.

While not all product recalls are the same, the urgency of removing unsafe or under-quality products from store shelves is a common theme and is not always easy. Implementing certain initiatives become critical to prevent the escalation of any serious issues.

Urgently Communicating Next Steps

Sending the word out to distributors or retailers about a product recall can be easily accomplished with a mass notification system. A mass notification system is a single communications platform that allows you to send out notifications instantly to a select audience through multiple communication modes.

For example, if Widget Foods was affected by the romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak, they could easily notify their store managers by sending out an alert about the recall through text message and email. The alert can include a link to additional information or any documentation needed as part of next steps. The alert could also go to the Widget Foods’ internal employee portal through the RSS feed.

Easily Collecting Responses

While it’s easy to send out an email communicating the recall, the more difficult part of the process is making sure that the message was received and that proper next steps are being taken. One effective way of collecting responses is to send a feedback poll to the same list of affected facilities. A poll-based alerting feature within a mass notification allows you to solicit information and even location data from a select group of recipients through SMS text, voice, and email.

Going back to the Widget Foods example, they could send out a poll to their stores to find out how many have followed through with next steps. The poll allows them to collect consistent responses so that they can determine if further action is needed to reach unresponsive stores.

Maintaining Good Faith with Consumers

The most important aspect of a product is maintaining good faith with consumers. A multitude of online resources exist to inform consumers about product recalls, but one way to leverage a mass notification system is by using an SMS opt-in feature. By texting a keyword to a short code, consumers would be able to sign up for alerts specific to the products they purchase, instead of digging through lists of various items on a webpage. 

You can use a keyword for multiple brands and can have multiple keywords. With optional automatic expiration, the subscription can be set to automatically expire on a specific date or after a specific duration.

What to Look for in a Mass Notification System to Communicate Product Recalls

When considering a communication tool for critical events such as product recalls, there are at least five features that should be included:

1. Unlimited list segmentation – Lists can be segmented by region, store/distribution facility, or contact role
2. Multi-modal message delivery – Notifications can be sent by a number of methods including voice, text message, email, social media, and RSS
   
   
3. Simple Interface – It shouldn’t take more than two steps to send notifications to all communication channels simultaneously
   
   
4. Two-way communications – Written/verbal responses should be possible to confirm receipt of messages
   
   
5. Robust reporting – Reports should include documents such as detailed event logs and deliverability performance by mode for each notification

Whether you currently use a mass notification system or alternative to communicate product recalls, find out how to evaluate your current system and ensure that it meets the needs for critical alerts.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, ECN shares how researchers at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) are aiming to make virtual reality simulations more of a reality for first responders, enabling them to learn and practice how to best operate and communicate in emergencies. The goal of this research is to spur industry developers to come up with user interfaces - visual indicators, sounds, voice commands - that are better, cheaper, proven effective and brought to market faster than otherwise would be possible.

Key Highlights:

• Possible technologies could allow for interfaces to be embedded in firefighters' masks or through smart glasses worn by medical technicians. A visual display might show the temperature in the room or audio might warn that oxygen is low in a backpack tank.
• Testing interfaces in real emergencies could expose first responders to high risk. Virtual reality offers a safer venue and can help ensure that innovations have a positive impact.
• So far, the software programs feature firefighting scenarios in a hotel, a mountain home, and an office environment. Users can choose their locations within the scenario and operate a controller to simulate a fire hose.

Developing any new product for first responders requires complex and resource-intensive testing. The goal is to develop technology that better informs and protects first responders in action.

You can access the full story here. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

ASIS 2018 Thoughts and Expectations

On May 16-18th, more than 25,000 security and law enforcement professionals from the private and public sector will gather in New York for the 2018 ASIS conference. The event is an opportunity to network with leaders in the field, and to learn about the top issues facing security professionals today, including anti-terrorism tactics and other critical problems facing urban areas. Check out what critical concerns in the safety and security fields we anticipate having conversations about at the show. 

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National Police Week Honors Fallen or Injured Law Enforcement

In May, law enforcement officers from across the country will travel to Washington D.C. to participate in a series of events and ceremonies for National Police Week. The week coincides with Peace Officers Memorial day, which falls on May 15th, and both of which are meant to honor the law enforcement officers who lost their lives or were severely injured while serving their communities.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

The University of South Carolina, a current Rave Guardian user, ranks among the safest college campuses in America, according to a recent study by an affiliate of ADT security company. This ranking is a testament to the innovative and strategic work of the university's public safety professionals. 

The university is currently working toward the mandatory training for nearly 10,000 of their administrators, faculty and staff. They are also continuing to evaluate building-security plans down to the individual room level to provide their community with even more information in the event of an emergency situation. 

Faculty, staff, and students are supporting public safety on campus by reporting suspicious activity by adhering to the "See Something, Say Something" campaign launched across USC's campus. Concerned community members are encouraged to report suspicious behavior by calling public safety directly or using the Rave Guardian safety app. 

To learn more about the incredible work coming out of USC's public safety department, read the full story here.

On May 16-18th, more than 25,000 security and law enforcement professionals from the private and public sector will gather in New York for the 2018 ASIS conference. The event is an opportunity to network with leaders in the field, and to learn about the top issues facing security professionals today. These include anti-terrorism tactics and other critical problems facing urban areas. ASIS also brings together a variety of security solutions providers, so attendees have the opportunity to learn about innovative, technology based safety strategies.

This year, the event begins with keynote speaker Scott Morrison, head of global crisis management and command centers for JPMorgan & Chase. Conference sessions will tackle topics ranging from drone technology, office and workplace security, protecting against vehicle attacks and more. The ASIS New York City Chapter will honor Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York as it’s annual Person of the Year. Dolan will be recognized for his contribution to safety in New York.

The Rave Mobile Safety team will be at Booth 226 and is excited to bring further information to attendees about our platform of solutions. The conference is an opportunity to meet law enforcement and security professionals and learn about the issues they face today. It’s a chance to help these professionals find new technology solutions for the myriad contemporary challenges facing public safety teams. 

There are three major thoughts that Rave Mobile Safety hopes to keep in mind heading into the 2018 ASIS Conference. These are the critical concerns in the safety and security fields that we anticipate having conversations about.

1. Active Shooter Risks 

The tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida put the issue of active shooter risks and school security into the national spotlight. When an assailant broke into the offices at YouTube and opened fire in early April, it opened up the conversation around active shooter precautions to include corporate workplaces and other private buildings. This issue is one of the pressing security threats of contemporary society, and it’s definitely on the forefront of law enforcement and other public safety officials emergency planning. It’s critical that schools, universities, corporate campuses, and other organizations have a safety plan that mitigates the risk of an active shooter emergency. 

There are many ways to address these risks, and communities should have a specific plan in place. In recent years, new solutions have been invented or popularized to both help prevent active shooter scenarios and mitigate potential risks. Investment in door stops, increased security patrol for the school campus or workplace, bleeding control kits, and under the desk or keychain panic buttons for faculty and employees.

As for Rave, we look forward to discussing how our platform of solutions might be valuable to security and safety planners. The Rave panic button app and a mass notifications system are both tools that have the capability to stop an active shooting or minimize injuries. The panic button is particularly relevant to the issue of active shooters, as it has the ability to inform enforcement teams of the nature of the emergency and the location of the caller. This can cut down response time, which is crucial in an active shooter emergency.

2. How to Contact Employees During Severe Weather & Other Business Disruptions 

Last year, severe weather posted significant challenges to business operations. The 2017 Hurricane season was particularly severe, and posed safety challenges on the state level as well as for private businesses and organizations. The North East was hit with several large snowstorms last winter, which also posed a communication challenge. In order to ensure employee safety during a weather emergency, businesses are beginning to focus on proactive emergency plans instead of just reactive solutions. Communication is key during a severe weather emergency, and businesses should be able connect with staff and employees, even if they are well-dispersed.

Staff and employee wellness checks can ensure that businesses are looking out for all staff and employees. During Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, GE used Rave Alert to automate communications and wellness checks. The company’s use of the tool provided lessons for crisis communications in the future. 

3. IT & Phishing Scams

These scams are difficult to prevent, especially for businesses where employees receive a high volume of emails each day. Sometimes, an employee will accidentally click on an IT or phishing scam if the information looks misleading or it appears to be from a colleague. It’s important for businesses not to lose personal data to nefarious sources because of an e-mail scam. Mass notification technology can help warn employee populations about potential IT/Phishing scams. By keeping the whole team informed, employees can mitigate the amount of data loss, if not prevent the incident entirely.

When it comes to addressing the biggest security issues and threats facing communities today, it’s important to have a comprehensive safety plan. Law enforcement and security professionals often seek a holistic approach to public safety plans, and by doing so are proactive in emergency planning. Rave’s platform of solutions integrates well with other security practices and tools, and it can have a key role in further bolstering safety.

Let’s discuss the importance of a comprehensive safety plan and innovative security solutions at ASIS 2018. Stop by our booth, meet with our team, and learn more about how how our products can address company safety and employee critical communications.

The 9th annual Rave Summit kicked off in the mile-high city of Denver, CO from April 16th to 18th. Here's what you might have missed at this unique user summit, straight from our attendees.

Several people from all over the country and Canada descended into Denver and were greeted by Todd Piett, CEO of Rave Mobile Safety.

A special message from CEO @toddpiett to all incoming #ravesummit attendees pic.twitter.com/6eX4GpJ8Zl

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 15, 2018

There was a buzz of excitement as attendees old and new settled in and checked out the event schedule.

My first Rave Conference. Hoping to learn something new. #LoveMyJob #RaveSummit

— Regina Payne (@payne2) April 15, 2018

Check out the @sched for Rave Summit @RaveMSafety #RaveSummit https://t.co/NmPkoKcPny

— Bob Bloom (@alexbob911) April 14, 2018

Excited for the start of the #RaveSummit here in #Denver. Thanks to @RaveMSafety @noahreiter @toddpiett for the invite to speak about #CorporateSecurity and #CrisisResponse.

— Don Aviv (@DonAviv) April 16, 2018

Proud to be a 6 year attendee and Charter50 member #ravesummit #ilovemyjob

— Leah Hornacek (@ljrebel52) April 17, 2018

Day One included standing-room only product trainings and ended with a beautiful Denver sunset.

Standing room only at our #ravesummit #ravealert product training! pic.twitter.com/VszcSoMvqk

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 16, 2018

So stoked for the #RaveSummit that I’ve got two cups of coffee for the opening sessions. Hopefully there will be frequent breaks. pic.twitter.com/V5FWv8d0ld

— Mitchell Burmeister (@mitchburmeister) April 17, 2018

Denver Sunset #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/sfHtHl6tkJ

— Kristi (@dirtroadaisymay) April 17, 2018

Day Two included a top-notch keynote speaker, a few secrets from our product team, and some important self-reflection.

“Know that your people are not trained to be disciplined.” @jc_glick delivers an awesome key note today at the #ravesummit @RaveMSafety pic.twitter.com/EzBqixzMcG

— Wanda Royster (@Wan_Gatt) April 17, 2018

@RaveMSafety - LTC JC Glick - #LifeIsChaos - don’t let repetition replace critical thinking. #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/2DKK6aiFgL

— thedrew (@thedrew) April 17, 2018

My favorite slides are the one with unicorns #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/4pSSLoHcRd

— Katharine Dahl (@Katharine_Dahl) April 17, 2018

#ravesummit #secrets pic.twitter.com/TeVMhTRPuT

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 17, 2018

“We have to grow faster and better. No matter how big we get, we want to make sure we get your input, that we keep a pulse on your needs” - @toddpiett #ravesummit

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 17, 2018

Oh, did we mention there was dancing and karoake on Day Two?

Check out these dance moves #ravesummit @Liveatjacks303 @pg6ix pic.twitter.com/1go5BaveMn

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 18, 2018

You got to be startin' somethin! And that somethin better be your Smart911 profile! #ravefave #RaveSummit @mitchburmeister #punny pic.twitter.com/WC0Tn7MtN2

— Cody Ashbaugh (@Cody_Ashbaugh) April 18, 2018

Whole new level. #RaveSummit #transcending pic.twitter.com/gcU54Ibq0H

— Mitchell Burmeister (@mitchburmeister) April 18, 2018

Day Three included additional presentations, a chance for attendees to provide feedback on products, and ended with some well-deserved awards.

#Colorado speaker of the House, Rep. Chrisanta Duran welcoming #ravesummit attendees and discussing Colorado's efforts to bolster #schoolsafety @RaveMSafety pic.twitter.com/2TF1k0IPjx

— Noah Reiter (@noahreiter) April 18, 2018

Great product feedback from our customers! Innovation at elevation indeed #RaveSummit pic.twitter.com/24FZLi9eO2

— Katharine Dahl (@Katharine_Dahl) April 18, 2018

I won the prize for best selfie! Thanks Rave! #RaveSummit #ILoveMyJob pic.twitter.com/bIGdVuDZL9

— Debbie Jo Cook Nantz (@debrajor39) April 18, 2018

And finally, we ended the Rave Summit as we began, thinking of how we can improve for the future.

@RaveMSafety The #ravesummit has been absolutely worth the time and travel to come to Denver to engage in Innovation at Elevation!

— thedrew (@thedrew) April 18, 2018

Last day! It’s been such an exciting week here at #RaveSummit. Can’t believe it’s almost over 😢 pic.twitter.com/LzsfjcRGIL

— Padikuor (@Padikay) April 18, 2018

And that’s a wrap! The rave team is debriefing #ravesummit and thinking about how to incorporate your feedback for next year. Thank you for another great summit! pic.twitter.com/Cyiq9QpsuR

— Rave Mobile Safety (@RaveMSafety) April 18, 2018

Don't forget to check out our awesome hashtag photos, #ravesummit, #summitselfie, and #ilovemyjob. Want to get updates about our next Rave Summit or where we're off to next?

Businesses committed to keeping their employees safe are being recommended to create a comprehensive facility safety profiles to better prepare first responders in the event of an emergency.

A number of businesses have implemented personal safety tools for enhancing employee safety. Some tools provide features that can help protect employees working remotely and travelling worldwide, and also in the office - where employees have the options of calling the business's on-premises security personnel or summoning 911 emergency responders with the tap of a button.

However, problems can arise when using any mobile service to call for help from a large office building because of the difficulty in pinpointing the exact location of the caller. Although some products provide a GPS tracking feature that can help determine the caller's “X” and “Y” coordinates, GPS is unable to locate what floor a caller is calling from in a multistory building (the “Z” coordinate).

A similar situation can occur if an employee uses the business's landline number to call 911. When 911 calls are made from private home landlines, 911 dispatchers are able to pinpoint the location of the caller by the address registered to the landline phone. In a multistory building or high-rise, thousands of employees in hundreds of offices over multiple floors could be sharing the same telephone system.

How to Overcome Location Problems with Corporate Safety Profiles

Currently, any business that uses a personal safety tool can offer employees the ability to create their own safety profile, and includes details about themselves that may be critical to first responders to know in the event of an emergency. Such details can include blood types, medical conditions, medications, allergies and mobility issues.

Personal Safety Profiles can only be accessed by 911 dispatchers and first responders when a 911 call is made from a phone number registered to the Personal Safety Profile. Most employees will naturally include their work and mobile numbers in their profiles, but these do not necessarily help 911 dispatchers pinpoint the location of an employee in a large office building for the reasons given above.

However, if businesses create Corporate Safety Profiles that include information such as access points, floor plans, and utility shut-off points - and employees link their individual Personal Safety Profiles to the Corporate Safety Profiles - when an emergency incident occurs the employee only need give the office number or department they are calling from, and 911 dispatchers can locate them immediately.

What Additional Data Should be Included in Corporate Safety Profiles

Corporate Safety Profiles should be as comprehensive as possible to better prepare first responders attending an incident. In addition to highlighting access points, floor plans and utility shut-off points, corporate safety profiles should include:

• The location of fire extinguishers and AEDs.
• The location and codes for alarms.
• How to remotely access CCTV footage.
• Electronic door and gate codes.
• Contact information for key holders.
• Contact information for administrators.
• Contact information for security personnel.

Mobile phone carriers are working with the FCC to find a way of better tracing the origin of 911 calls from mobile callers located within multistory buildings. Currently trials are taking place using Wi-Fi hotspots and Bluetooth technology, but a truly accurate solution could be many years away. While we wait for a solution to be developed, it is recommended businesses create Corporate Safety Profiles and have employees link them to their own Personal Safety Profiles.

In The News This Week

In recent industry news, a Juniper study commissioned by Intel estimates that smart cities have the potential to "give back" a remarkable 125 hours to every resident every year. Additionally, the study ranks the top 20 smart cities worldwide across multiple factors, including public safety, and reveals how these cities deliver positive outcomes for quality of life, safer environments, and more. 

Key Highlights from the Study:

• Improvements in public safety can deliver substantial time benefits for smart city citizens. For example, street lights can be transformed into connected digital infrastructure beacons, monitoring the pulse of city life, which enable a range of local departments to be safer, cleaner, and more efficient. They can also be used to prioritize emergency service vehicles through traffic light phasing and driver re-routing.
• High-ranking safety winners such as Singapore and New York City have worked to address violent crime by taking a data-driven approach. New York City has found predictive modeling to be a key asset for both law enforcement and fire services. 
• Machine learning enabled software can be used to predict crime spots on any given day.

Read the full report here to learn how you can begin transforming your community into a smart city. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

3 Questions Fluor Asked Before Integrating WebEOC with a Mass Notification System

Gary Simon, Senior Emergency Response Team Leader for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (FFPO), presented a webinar on how his company's need to protect employees and ensure business continuity led him to integrate WebEOC with Rave's mass notification system. In this webinar breakdown blog, we highlight a few of Gary's key takeaways on how updating your incident management plan can dramatically increase your situational awareness.

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Four Questions to Ask Before Renewing Your Mass Notification Contract

When it comes to renewing your mass notification vendor contract, you should consider asking a few questions to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. We offer up four of the most important questions to consider before renewing your mass notification system contract. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

Spring's arrival signals the start of many severe weather events, including powerful thunderstorms and tornadoes. These storms can prove especially challenging to citizens with hearing loss. K.K. Gross, who runs the clinical operations for Shea Hearing Center in Memphis and Nashville, TN says the these emergencies can make communication difficult for hearing-impaired residents. Gross says there are easy steps people with hearing loss can take in advance to mitigate an emergency's impact, including putting together an emergency preparedness kit and equipping your home with emergency-detecting assistive technology devices. 

For residents living in Nashville and various other counties throughout Tennessee, Gross recommends they take advantage of Smart911. With this free service, residents can create a safety profile and input their medical history, noting any hearing impairments, that would be important for first responders to know about during an emergency. Gross says that it's important to have people in your network who know about your disability, and that includes emergency personnel.

You can access the story here.

"We needed to figure out a way to integrate our mass notification system and employ accountability into WebEOC so we could integrate with one platform."

Gary Simon, Senior Emergency Response Team Leader for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (FFPO), presented a webinar on how his company's need to protect employees and ensure business continuity led him to integrate WebEOC with Rave's mass notification system. 

FFPO, located along the U.S. gulf coast, is under contract with the Department of Energy to manage the day to day operations of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The requirements mandated by this federal contract, along with frequent interruptions to daily operations because of severe weather events, forced Gary and his team to find a comprehensive incident management solution that would address all their emergency management needs.

Prior to this integration, daily operations were handwritten and recorded on paper logs. Gary's team was tasked with bringing FFPO's day-to-day operations into the 21st century and integrate their team's three main safety technology platforms - WebEOC, ESRI GIS, and a mass notification system - into one.

Watch clip 1 of 2 to learn more about what initially prompted FFPO to embark on a platform integration and how you might be facing similar emergency safety shortcomings

 

 

 

 

 

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Before integrating their technology platforms, FFPO's emergency management team asked the following three questions:

Because the answer to all three of these questions was yes, Gary and his team were given the green light to move forward with the project. Two of the main goals for the integration, having the ability to house all emergency management activities in one location and overall improvement in situational awareness, were both achieved. This consolidation of platforms allowed FFPO's emergency management team to understand immediately the impact severe weather has on work sites, employees, supply transportation routes, and post-recovery efforts. 

Watch clip 2 of 2 to see how this integration improved the emergency management team's situational awareness and ultimately provided better protection for FFPO employees

 

 

 

 

 

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On What This Integration Means To Fluor

For Gary, the most important part of his job is ensuring the safety of Fluor employees and maintaining daily business operations. On what this integration has meant to FFPO, Gary had the following to say,

"The integration of these three platforms has dramatically improved the team's situational awareness, allows for better control and overall accountability of mass notifications reaching employees, and consolidates the process where the end user can do everything from one interface as opposed to maneuvering in and out of different platforms."

To end the webinar, Gary wanted to leave viewers with this final thought:

"By integrating all off these processes together and by having Rave Mobile Safety on board with us, we were able to take our alert notification and reduce the steps it takes to send out mass notifications by about 67%.

We were able to create a searchable history that is now automatically loaded the minute you make an alert… so it’s easy to get to old alerts and look through the database. It also gave management access from anywhere… anywhere you have internet connection you have 24/7 situational awareness."

Want to learn more?

The full recording of the webinar is about 30 minutes long and includes additional insight into Fluor's WebEOC integration as well as an extensive Q&A session. Check it out here or let us know if you’re interested in attending more webinars.

When it comes to renewing your mass notification vendor contract, you should consider asking a few questions to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. On average, companies work with about 89 different technology vendors - and that number doesn’t appear to be getting any smaller. Industry research predicts the number of technology vendors that companies work with will continue to grow over the next few years. According to a recent survey of 600 IT leaders, 71 percent say that they will continue to work with more vendors over the next two years. 

Here are four questions you should ask before renewing your mass notification contract.

Are you satisfied with your product? This seems like a no-brainer, but you should enjoy using your communication platform. If you haven’t had the chance to reflect on your mass notification solution, now might be the time. Identify major successes and failures you’ve had with the platform. When in doubt, seek additional opinions - ask your vendor if they can connect you with peer organizations to learn about their experiences with the product.

Reflect on any challenges or roadblocks faced over the course of your contract. If issues arose, how quickly and effectively did your vendor’s services team respond and resolve? If mistakes were made, were they the result of human error or a shortcoming in the platform’s performance capabilities? If your team was at fault, you can seek out training to avoid another communication error in the future. If the platform was to blame, it might be time to find a new vendor. 

Have you used all of your product’s functionalities? Your vendor should be able to provide you with usage data and help you identify areas for improvement. Make sure you understand where usage gaps exist and what features you may have been under-utilizing before determining if the communication platform was a failure or success. A great vendor will help you identify weaknesses in your current mass notification strategy and work with you to ensure you reach full operational potential.

Does your customer success representative get back to you quickly when you have a question about your contract?  Before you renew, ask your rep to provide a detailed price breakdown of your current contract. If they don’t get back to you, it might be worth getting quotes from comparable products. Shopping around will help you during renegotiation or discover a new vendor with solutions better fit for your needs.

Does your vendor provide training tips or details on new product features on a regular basis? If the answer is yes, you vendor probably cares about your experience and satisfaction. A vendor who frequently creates new content and training videos is likely thinking of your long-term success, and that’s great news for you. Webinars, monthly email updates, and in-person training workshops are just a few examples of how your vendor might be leveraging their industry knowledge to help you achieve success. The release of new product features are a great indication that your vendor is listening to customer feedback and challenging itself to create better and more innovative solutions. If your vendor is not doing these things, it might be time to start searching for one who views your success as their own.

Still unsure if it’s time to reconsider your mass notification contract renewal? Check out this comparison checklist to make sure you’re getting the most out of your system.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, Fire Chief published a piece on how interoperability issues hindered police and fire response to a deadly wildfire that destroyed parts of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park back in November of 2016. The After Action Review, commissioned by Sevier County and the city of Gatlinburg, identified several disaster response communication challenges that increased wildfire spread and damage to local infrastructure. 

Key Highlights from the Review:

• Cell phone communication outages contributed to a delay of the public broadcast of the evacuation message for Gatlinburg. Furthermore, because this event was a non-weather emergency message, the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) could not be used for the evacuation.
• Insufficient radio interoperability among city, county, state and federal agencies created critical obstacles to direct communication. Mutual aid responding agencies were unable to communicate with one another and the established Emergency Operations Center or the Gatlinburg Police Department Communications Center. 
• At times, the radio communications related to the fire and response overloaded the Sevier County radio system. Some busy signals occurred due to the abundance of radio traffic and the lack of available radio frequencies for the Gatlinburg Police Department.

Fortunately, the well-established relationship between local responders and the community did help overcome many of the existing communication struggles. Most of the responders had operated or trained together before the fire and were able to develop a coordinate common goal. 

Read the full article here and make sure you are prepared and trained for the next large-scale natural disaster.

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

Why the Airline Industry Needs An Alerting System

In early November of 2017, a lithium ion battery exploded in a suitcase near security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport. The explosion raised fears of a shooting, inciting chaos throughout the entire airport. The airport couldn't notify employees of the situation or that the threat had passed, leaving travelers without information. A mass communication platform would have increased response time, help spread accurate information among employees and passengers, and prevented confusion and chaos in the terminals. 

  READ MORE

Keeping School Children Safe Outdoors with an Emergency App

With the season for outdoor recess in full swing, school administrators need to put plans into place to keep the children in their care safe from danger and injury. They should consider the most effective ways for seeking emergency help when unforeseeable emergencies occur. Implementing an emergency safety app is a great way to open lines of communication between key administrators, teachers, and health services. 

READ MORE

Rave in the News

The ridesharing service Uber announced Thursday that it is unveiling a pilot program in Denver, Colorado aimed at improving rider safety. The company is partnering with RapidSOS to connect users with local emergency services with the tap of a button. The service, among many things, will send the user's location, description of the vehicle and Uber trip details to 911 dispatchers. The new partnership will integrate with the existing Rave platform to  provide Denver 911 dispatchers with even more critical information during an emergency. 

Executive Director of Denver 911 Athena Butler says this new location data is a game-changer. What does this more accurate location information mean? According to Butler, "Seconds save lives. If that information presents automatically to us, that makes for a more successful outcome for that citizen who has called us in distress" 

You can access the story here.

Every November, families from across New Jersey descend on Orlando, Florida to visit Disney World. It’s an unofficial event titled “Jersey Week”, and it’s notorious for crowding the parks, public transport, and airports. On November 11^th, 2017, a lithium ion battery in a suitcase exploded near a security checkpoint at Orlando International Airport, just as tourists flooded the airport to return home at the end of the annual vacation week. 

A TSA agent was able to grab the compromised bag and remove it from the area, but the incident caused widespread panic. The explosion and sound of falling stanchions raised fears of a shooting, and the people in the terminal were instructed to evacuate with little information. According to NBC news, the incident also canceled 24 flights

The situation in Orlando demonstrates why the airline industry should invest in an alerting system as part of their emergency communication plan. In videos of the incident, security officer Ricardo Perez, a 20-year old former veteran grabbed the package and ran away from the lines of people. Nobody was hurt, but the incident immediately sparked outcry and fear, even among staff. The airport couldn't notify employees that the threat had passed, which in turn left customers without information. 

 In a statement issued to NBC News, Greater Orlando International Aviation Authority CEO Phil Brown described the reason for the chaos after the officer removed the smoking package. “Others hearing the luggage being dropped, stanchions falling, and rapid movement mistook the sounds as gunfire and within seconds a spontaneous evacuation of the main terminal occurred,” Brown wrote. Customers near the exploding battery were initially evacuated, but it took a long time for the situation to resolve and passengers were sequestered in the main terminal for hours waiting for the airport to resume operations. 

Travelers were stranded without being told the nature of the emergency. The crowds in the airports main lobby included passengers who had already passed through security and boarded planes. People on grounded flights were only told there was an emergency situation, and were deplaned.

Esther Smith* reported that her plane was evacuated into a back hallway in the airport and passengers were told to run. The plane was full of families returning from the Disney theme park, and included very young children as well as elderly passengers.

“It's crazy. Nobody knows anything,” traveler Mckenzie Golden told WFNTV news while waiting to pass through security and return to her flight. The confusion meant that many found themselves was panicked and unable to act in an informed, coordinated manner. In the case of a true emergency, it's crucial for customers to understand proper evacuation and response procedures. 

The lack of communication between law enforcement, airline management, and the airplane crew resulted in chaos in Orlando, and it could happen at any airline, even during a less-busy time of year for traveling. If employees aren't able to be told the nature of the emergency or where within the airport the threat occurred,  there was no effective way to communicate safety procedures to passengers. This contributes to the panic, and can leave customers fearing for their safety, even if the threat is handled by law enforcement.

In Orlando, all travelers was required to pass through TSA once again, but in the meantime, thousands of people stood in the airport’s front terminal with no idea what had occurred. If there had been an emergency situation, the crowding in the airport terminal could have presented a serious safety and security threat, especially since there was no system in place to communicate quickly and effectively with airport staff and local law enforcement.

“We attempted various methods of communicating but as everyone is aware, a few trying to communicate a message to this large of a mass is a daunting task but efforts were continued throughout the event,” Brown wrote in his statement. “Communications is and will always be an issue in this type of a situation but please know that we will always try our best in communicating all available information to our customers and our staff.” He promised that there would be a complete review of the airport response following the incident, and that the airport’s communication strategies and emergency plan would be revised.

During the incident at the Orlando Airport, customers had to find information from the outside. The Orlando Police tweeted that there was no gun threat or shooting, and stranded passengers received updates from local news stations and by contacting friends or family outside of the situation. If the airline industry was better equipped with emergency alert technology, airplane crews and airport staff would be able to better manage the high-stakes emergency situations.

A mass notification system like Rave Alert would allow an airline to notify employees via text messages in the case of an emergency. The incident at the Orlando Airport shows how large crowds can present security challenges, but even during a period with normal travel traffic, effective communication is key. If there is a suspicious package or a battery explosion in the future, every employee can be instantly informed. Then, those evacuating planes or certain areas of the airport would be able to better instruct passengers and avoid putting anyone into danger.

There are a few other ways that an airline can leverage technology to improve internal security, and giving people the ability to report a suspicious package to the appropriate authorities can only help bolster public safety in airports. A text-to-tip service is another option for airlines looking to increase the options in their public safety plan. The customers would feel safer if allowed to take their security into own hands, and it could help preemptively address potential security risks. 

It’s important for customers to feel safe and secure in an airport, especially as for many, traveling can be a high stress endeavor. When dealing with periods of high foot traffic, airlines should take extra security precautions.  The unfortunate situation in the Orlando International Airport terminal during Jersey Week may not have been preventable, but a communication system could have increased response time and helped the spread of accurate information. Even when faced with the security challenges of a large crowd, having a line of communication open with staff can at least keep passengers notified. This way, customers don’t have to seek outside information in case of an emergency, and everyone can respond in a coordinated manner. 

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, IoT Agenda published a piece on how the tech industry can help us become better prepared for the instantaneous challenges of a natural disaster - and help us recover quicker in their wake. 

Key Highlights:

• Smart irrigation systems can help protect infrastructure during a wildfire. New exterior sprinkler systems can be triggered by rising temperatures or surpassing a preestablished heat and humidity threshold.
• Through machine learning, technology can now predict the timing and severity of a natural disaster, including a detailed analysis of its potential social and economic effect - crucial for emergency management officials. 
• Minor construction changes to your community's infrastructure might be the quick enhancement you need to protect against the tremors of an earthquake. 

Early warning systems are key to mitigating the impact of natural disasters. If these tech solutions are not currently available in your community, there are plenty of other innovate public safety strategies you can explore to better protect residents who may require additional assistance during an emergency. 

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

Patriots Receiver Julian Edelman Helps Stop Potential School Shooter

New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is being praised for his quick actions in preventing what could have been then 18^th school shooting in 2018. Edelman was visiting former teammate Danny Amendola in Texas late last month when he received a disturbing message on social media from one of his followers prompting him to reach out to law enforcement. A 14-year-old boy was later arrested in Port Huron, Michigan for creating false threats of terrorism.

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Texting 9-1-1 Proves Lifesaving in Family Violence Cases

Victims of family violence often fear they will put themselves at greater risk of harm by making a phone call and verbally communicating with 9-1-1. It has become clear that the majority of victims will opt to communicate silently with authorities via text message if the option is available. There have been dozens of cases where 9-1-1 texting has proved life-saving in domestic violence situations. The following stories form a small sample of these instances.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA has taken serious steps to improving the relationship between students and the administration. UMW recently started a forum series called "UMW: Can We Talk", where university officials sit on a panel and here complaints, concerns, and ideas from students. 

Previous forums have focused on the lack of diversity among university faculty and the type of content being discussed in class. The topic for the next "UMW: Can We Talk" forum, which is happening this afternoon, will be on student safety.There will be a 30 minutes presentation on campus security, active shooting situations, faculty obligations in a crisis, and services provided by campus police, including the Rave Guardian Safety App, a 24/7 service used by campus police. The Chief of University Police Michael Hall hopes this forum will open a dialogue where safety officers can hear directly from students about what needs to be improved for them to feel safe on campus. 

You can access the full story here.

Companies in the oil and gas industry have to contend with multiple threats to health and safety, relying heavily on multi-faceted incident management response system software.

This is true for Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations, the company that currently manages the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In October 1973, during the Yom Kippur war, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an oil embargo against the U.S. in retaliation for re-supplying the Israeli army. U.S. oil production had already begun to decline, and domestic producers were unable to make up the supply shortage. As a result, oil rationing was introduced and prices quadrupled in a short space of time.

To prevent a similar scenario happening again, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) in December 1975. The Act established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve which today is the world's largest supply of emergency crude oil. Located in four locations in Louisiana and Texas, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve maintains enough crude oil to supply the entire U.S. for ninety days.

Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations

In 2013, Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations (Fluor) was selected by the Department of Energy to manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Fluor's role includes operating and maintaining each of the storage sites, all the related equipment, and ensuring the structural integrity of sixty-three underground salt caverns across the four locations to maintain operational readiness.

The company has a long history of working with the U.S. Government. It constructed cooling towers and other facilities for the Manhattan Project, constructed pumps for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and, more recently, provided disaster recovery services after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It is fair to say Fluor knows a thing or two about health and safety.

How Fluor Prepares for Emergency Incidents

Fluor has an outstanding record for preventing and managing emergency incidents. In 2015, the Bryan Mound site in Texas - the world's largest man-made oil storage container - celebrated one thousand days without a lost-time incident, and all four sites managed by the company have achieved “Star Status” in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program.

However, knowing an emergency incident could occur any minute, Fluor uses the incident management system software WebEOC - a system designed by leading technology company Intermedix for information, resource and task management. WebEOC provides Fluor with analysis, modeling and simulation from a range of “what if” scenarios to guide the company's emergency incident planning and ensure that, should an incident occur, the right resources are in the right place at the right time.

How Fluor Took its Incident Management System to the Next Level

Despite being well prepared for emergency incidents, one area was lacking in Fluor's emergency preparedness, an integrated emergency notification system. Fluor had implemented an emergency notification system, but because it did not fully integrate with WebEOC, the procedure for sending emergency alerts was time-consuming, requiring multiple steps to sign in and send alerts and manual data entry. 

As every second is valuable in an emergency, Fluor replaced its existing emergency notification system with Rave Alert - a system that integrates seamlessly with WebEOC to reduce the complexity of sending an emergency alert. Rave Alert not only saves valuable seconds - thus potentially saving lives - but also gives Fluor the ability to capture event data and notification data on the same application.

Why Rave Alert is More Efficient than Any Other System

Rave Alert's compatibility with WebEOC stems from a partnership announced in 2016 between Intermedix and Rave Mobile Safety. Originally intended to increase incident management and communications efforts across higher education institutions, it was a natural progression for the partnership to work together in other incident management scenarios.

Rave Alert uses multiple communication modes to quickly deliver critical information from any Internet connected device. In addition to saving valuable seconds in an emergency, Rave Alert also supports two-way communication to enable communication between incident managers, emergency services and individuals on the ground. This facility enhances situational awareness in order to better manage emergency incidents, quickly bring them under control and potentially save even more lives.

You can find out more about how Rave Alert helped Fluor take its Incident Management System to the next level by joining us at our next webinar.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, ZDNet reported on a recent cyber attack that disrupted public safety operations in Baltimore, MD. Unknown hackers caused a shutdown of Baltimore's automated dispatch system and slowed down the response time of first responders for a grueling 17 hours.   

Key Highlights:

• The cyberattack was launched Saturday morning at 8:30 am, impacting the messaging functions within the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system used by both Baltimore's 911 and 311 services
• CAD is used to automatically divert calls to the closest emergency responders in order to make assistance in emergencies as efficient and quick as possible - this breach forced responders to transition to a manual mode of operation 
• This breach delayed the dispatch of first responders to emergency in Baltimore until the CAD system was restored 

 (You can access the full story here.)

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

How California's Disaster Communication Plan Failed Residents During Deadly Wildfires

The state’s independent review found that Sonoma County emergency staff failed to prepare for the deadly October wildfires and had an outdated understanding of technology, unorganized emergency alerting protocol, and undertrained staff. The report also warns that the weaknesses found in Sonoma County's disaster communication plan are not unique. Find out where Sonoma County officials went wrong and make sure your community avoids similar destruction in the event of natural disaster.

In The News This Week

This week in industry news, GCN published a piece on how artificial intelligence can act as a valuable tool in addressing the citizen-service challenges that arise from a natural disaster. When citizens have a critical need, their rush to seek assistance can overwhelm even the most prepared government contact centers. AI might be the answer public safety officials have been searching for.

Key Highlights:

• Intelligent virtual assistants take the best of speech recognition technologies from traditional interactive voice response systems and incorporate human assistance so that citizens can resolve many of their own requests faster without increasing staffing
• AI-enabled assistants can actually learn from experience and have a 95% success rate in recognizing natural speech, reducing citizen frustration by preventing misunderstanding, repetition, and misdirection
• AI technology is hosted in a secure cloud environment, eliminating the need for new facilities or expanded technology infrastructure - agencies can choose when and where they use intelligent virtual assistants

Not sure if your community is ready to commit to intelligent virtual assistants? There are plenty of other innovate public safety strategies you can explore to better protect your citizenry that might be an easier first step - including solutions aimed at residents who may require additional assistance during an emergency.

This Week From the Rave Team

Read some of the stories our writers were most excited to share with you this week. To access all of our stories, check out our blog.

Geo-poll Use Cases for Employee Communication

Employers are now searching for solutions that give them the biggest bang for their buck and can provide both emergency and non-emergency communication. Learn how you can use geo-poll to help you cover everything from unscheduled employee absences to employee wellness checks during natural disasters - all without a mobile app.

READ MORE

Why You Should Review Your School Cellphone Policy to Protect Students 

In an era where schools are susceptible to mass shootings and other disaster situations, it’s important to consider the use of cellphones as potential safety tools. We break down the argument surrounding the use of cellphones by students while in school and why you might want to consider revisiting your school's crisis management plan to include them.

READ MORE

Rave in the News

Nassau County, NY has taken dramatic steps to improving police response times during an active shooter event.

Each of Nassau County's 56 school district will be provided a law enforcement liaison who will be tasked with learning the layout of every school in their district, including all points of entry, coordinating active shooter plans with school leadership, and serving as the designated representative if school officials have concerns about a particular student.

The program is being rolled out in Nassau's 450 public school buildings and will eventually expand to all private schools and colleges. Nassau police have already trained 75 school principals on how to respond to an active shooter, and an additional 75 will be trained by the end of the month. The county is also making progress to improve school security by implementing the Rave Panic Button system in all schools to ensure a rapid response during a school emergency.

You can access the full story here.

Maintaining employee communication throughout a workplace emergency or even a last-minute change in operational needs is crucial. Many business leaders might employ several business continuity management methods to achieve this. Unfortunately, implementing multiple employee communication platforms is expensive - and employers might still not receive the data they need.

Employers are now searching for solutions that provide them the biggest bang for their buck and can provide both emergency and non-emergency communication. Business leaders want to be sure their communication platform will reach all of their employees during an emergency, even those who are traveling or working remotely. Are they safe? Do they need additional resources and assistance? While it’s important for business leaders to prepare for the worst, solutions that also support routine communication with employees day to day will provide a better investment by preventing minor business disruptions from affecting daily operations.

A new business continuity tool, geo-pool, is a unique poll-based alerting feature within a mass notification system that allows you to solicit information and location data from a select group of recipients through SMS text, voice, and email. This feature can be used to solicit important information on employee wellness during an emergency or to support business managers as they attempt to cover a missed work shift.

Everyday Employee Communication to Ensure Business Continuity

According to one CCH study, the rise in absenteeism in employees is of greatest concern to employers - almost two out of three employees who fail to show up for work aren’t physically ill. Personal illness only accounts for about 35% of unscheduled absences, while 65% of absences are due to other reasons such family issues or personal needs.

With unscheduled absences trending upwards, employers need to optimize shift management to continue daily business operations.

Geo-poll provides a solution to staffing shortages by allowing employers to solicit volunteers for understaffed or vacant work shifts. Managers can send quota polls to all team members or volunteers that automatically conclude after a certain number of required responses are reached.

For example, a warehouse manager receives a message from an employee who states they are unable to come into work for their shift later that evening. Unfortunately, the manager knows they need all hands on deck for a large shipment scheduled to go out early tomorrow morning. The manager decides to send the following message out to all team members:

   “Are you available to work the third shift tonight (3/21/2017) from 11pm-7am?”

Knowing that additional assistance is needed for tonight’s shift, the team manager sets the quota poll to remain open until two team members have responded ‘Yes’. Once two team members have accepted the open shift, the poll will close and no other team members will be able to claim the open shift. In this example, the shift manager was able to quickly fill the open shift and simultaneously add an additional employee to help work the important shipment going out the next day. Furthermore, setting the poll to close after the response quota was fulfilled eliminated any confusion among team members who may have opened the poll after the shifts were filled.

Real-Time Location Data without an App Transforms Emergency Employee Check-ins

While it’s important for business leaders to maintain business operations during an emergency, their main focus should be accounting for the safety of all their employees - including those who are traveling or working remote.

Employers need to determine where employees are located, if their employees are safe, and who requires additional resources and assistance. Geo-poll can be used to send a wellness check to employees following an emergency such as a natural disaster or active assailant incident.

For example, an employer wants to do a wellness check to all employees, even those who are traveling or working from home, following a recent tropical storm. The employer decides to send the following message out to all employees in the company database:

“Regarding recent weather events, are you safe?”

The employer then prompts each employee to choose one of three required answer fields: ‘No’, ‘Yes’, or ‘I don’t know’. Having pre-determined answer fields allows for easier data aggregation compared to free-form answer fields. The employer can also request or require location data with each poll response to view the recipient locations on a map.

If an employee responded either ‘No’ or ‘I don’t know’ to the geo-poll, a follow-up question can be sent asking if additional assistance is required. From these reports, employers can determine the location of specific employees affected by a natural disaster and respond accordingly.

Another use case for employee check-ins involves traveling or lone workers. Several years back, a large earthquake hit China and global manufacturing firms struggled to identify not only what facilities may have been impacted but also what traveling employees may have been in the area and in need of assistance. Similarly, in the wake of the Paris nightclub attack and subsequent lockdown of the city, enterprises struggled to locate key resources.

Employees do not need to rely on apps or static location data for real-time location of their staff - an important feature when accounting for employees during an emergency. Geo-polling allows customers to use a mass notification system to solicit information for easy analysis and action which can prove useful for timely, non-emergency employee communication.

The 2018 Rave User Summit event offers the chance to see and explore one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. Here is a list of interesting facts and figures about Denver, Colorado.

The Rave User Summit will take place in Denver, Colorado, on April 16-18^th. The event is an opportunity for customers from all over the country to come together and connect with other people in their field, sit in on kick-off presentations from nationally recognized leaders as they kick off each day, provide input for our products in early development, and ask questions about Rave’s solutions and products with a guru in the Guru Lounge. Registration for the event is open, and you can sign up today.

The 2018 Summit is a chance for customers to educate their peers on best-practices while help Rave optimize solutions and products. Of course, it’s also a chance to explore the city of Denver, which is a historic and scenic city. Many travelers are familiar with the sites and attractions that Denver has to offer, including museums, a variety of restaurants, nightlife, and awe-inspiring nature. It’s well-known that the city is a popular destination for hiking, mountain-climbing, and skiing, and any adventurous Rave customer will be able to explore the surrounding nature.

Denver is best known for its mountain views – it is, after all, nicknamed the “Mile High City”. It stands at one-mile above sea level, making it the highest city in the United States.  There is just one of many interesting facts and figures about the Colorado capital.

Here are 7 more interesting facts and figures about Denver, Colorado to check out before you register for the 2018 Rave User Summit.

1.The city population in Denver is 554,635, making it the most populous city in Colorado. It’s a major hub for communications, transportation, energy, aerospace, and tourism. Colorado, the Centennial State, became the nation’s 38^th state in 1876. Denver was founded in 1858 and was named after the governor James Denver.

 

Due to a blizzard on April 20th (yes a blizzard), the 4:20 rally was postponed until this past Saturday. It was the largest 4:20 rally to date (and the largest 4:20 rally in the world) with featured performances from @liltunechi @mistercap. #420rally 📷: @romenempire

A post shared by Denver Colorado (@cityofdenver) on May 23, 2016 at 12:59pm PDT

2.  Led Zeppelin played their first show in the United States in Denver. The legendary group took the stage on October 20^th, 1968 at the Denver Auditorium Arena. The concert was part of a short string of shows, and the not-yet-famous band was an opening act for Vanilla Fudge.

The Denver Auditorium Arena is still standing today and remains a popular spot for concerts and other performances. It’s just one of many venues around the city were locals and guests can find live music, including the Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Summit Music Hall, and Hi-Dive.

 

@citra_band album release party in the club tonight with @allchiefs and @thepatientzeros, plus #djricecube spinning the dance jamz! 📷: @shannonbenannen

A post shared by Hi-Dive (@hidive_denver) on Feb 3, 2018 at 1:00pm PST

3. In 1935, Louis Ballast trademarked the cheeseburger at the Humpty Dumpty Barrel, a drive-in restaurant in Denver. The fast-food stop has since closed, but there is a stone marker in the downtown location where it once stood.

There are plenty of places for visitors to get a cheeseburger today. According to the Denver Ear, the best burgers in the city can be found at the 5280 Burger Bar, Crave Real Burgers, or Cherry Cricket.

That my friends is the Spicy BBQ N' Bacon Burger! Come down and try it before its gone! #BBQ #westminster #whatsfordinner pic.twitter.com/ozOdxIIhpR

— 5280 Burger Bar (@5280BurgerBar) December 5, 2017

4. Denver is one of the sunniest cities in the United States. It’s a popular saying that the city sees 300 out of 365 days per year reporting sunshine, and while this isn’t scientifically true, the weather is something to brag about. The Rocky Mountain region tends to see plenty of clear days, and there is a statistically high chance that any time you are in the city it will be a sunny, or at least partly cloudy, day.

 

"V ordinary walk in the park." — @joneking #tbt #rmnp (Just to be clear: this is a throwback. Current conditions are v much wintery.)

A post shared by Rocky Mountain National Park (@rockynps) on Mar 1, 2018 at 10:50am PST

5. Denver is one of the few cities that isn't built on a river, lake, ocean or major body of water. The reason for this is that the city was established during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, later known as the Colorado Gold Rush. Denver and Boulder City were built to service the mines during this time.

 

Red Rocks. Morrison, Colorado. 📷: @tri2hover

A post shared by Denver Colorado (@cityofdenver) on Jul 18, 2016 at 5:22pm PDT

6. Denver's downtown area is one of the most walkable in the country. Tourists can plan to see the city's sports stadiums, performing art center, museums, aquarium, and restaurants - all within walking distance of each other. Many of the city's top restaurants and shopping experiences can be found on one has a recognizable city street that is lit with strings of lights year round.

 

Denver twinkling especially bright tonight with Union Station in the foreground. 📷: @keenanhock

A post shared by Denver Colorado (@cityofdenver) on Jan 28, 2016 at 7:37pm PST

7. Denver is one of the only cities in the United States to have 7 professional sports teams. This is because sports are a huge part of city life, boasting plenty of facilities for a variety of sports, including baseball, basketball, football, mountain climbing, and rodeo. The professional teams include the baseball team the Colorado Rockies, NFL team the Denver Broncos, hockey team Colorado Avalanche, and the NBA's Denver Nuggets.

 

Tomorrow's the big day, go Broncos! #SuperBowl 📷: @rjamartinez

A post shared by Denver Colorado (@cityofdenver) on Feb 6, 2016 at 6:23pm PST

Denver, Colorado is a city with a unique history, and it's definitely a place to visit for any traveler who enjoys the great outdoors, sports, or a variety of dining and live-performances. There are plenty of professional reasons to attend the 2018 Rave User Summit, and it's an opportunity to network and make sure that you're optimizing Rave's platform of solutions. However, the Summit is also an opportunity for you to explore the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado, where the event will be hosted.

Sign up for the 2018 Rave User Summit today!